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Using short brass for regular loads?

Didn't know my Hornady 444 brass is .15 shorter than the 2.225 length in the manual. (The brass is from 265g Hornady Flextips.) Will I have issues building pressure if I'm loading bullets and seating them normally? Do I need to seat the bullet out farther to maintain col? Will I be building more pressure seating the bullet like I would normally in a 2.225 cartridge? Right now I'm loading 240g jhp & 270 gdsp. I'd like to load some heavier bullets like Hornady 300 xtp and eventually try some 330 beartooth bullets. Do I need long brass?

I don't shoot the 444 but is the brass actually .15 shorter or is it .015 shorter? If it is .15 shorter, I would load at normal oal. .015 won't make much difference but I'd still use normal oal so I wouldn't have to change the dies for the different brass.

Yea, its .15 shorter. I measured my brass with Hornady digital caliper at 2.075". So you're saying I should load at col? That just means my bullet would be sticking further up. Looking at my 240jph, it does have a crimping groove. How does this factor in?

[QUOTE=tccak71;702687]Didn't know my Hornady 444 brass is .15 shorter than the 2.225 length in the manual. (The brass is from 265g Hornady Flextips.) Will I have issues building pressure if I'm loading bullets and seating them normally? Do I need to seat the bullet out farther to maintain col? Will I be building more pressure seating the bullet like I would normally in a 2.225 cartridge? Right now I'm loading 240g jhp & 270 gdsp. I'd like to load some heavier bullets like Hornady 300 xtp and eventually try some 330 beartooth bullets. Do I need long brass?

Hope this makes sense...

TCCAK71, I reload for my .450 Marlin and found in the Hornady web site this statement on reloading FTX bullets and case length. The cases from Hornady that hold the interlock bullet are normal length cases, the FTX are shorter. Since I reload, I only buy the standard saami length cartridges or cases anymore. I bought a couple boxes of the FTX to try and found the same thing you just did. I have worked my way up to max(not over) in the .450 Marlin using the short cases and certain powders with no issues. I now keep that short brass seperate and load only plinkers. This is only because you have crimp issues if you mix them. Below is the blurb...

Loading FTX™ bullets requires some specialized techniques in certaincases. To achieve a high ballistic coefficient we had to lengthen theogive, or nose, of the bullet. Sometimes this requires that the cartridgecase to be trimmed shorter than the suggested .010" under SAAMI Maxlength that we recommend for conventional bullets. Follow prescribedtrim lengths exactly as presented in the FTX™ data for optimum results.

Thanks, Armymark. I didn't realize the brass was shorter otherwise I wouldn't have bought 120 rounds when I bought the rifle. I still have 60 live rounds. Glad I didn't start loading 300g with the short brass. I'll probably do the same and use the hornady brass for plinking with 240g's and moderate loads.